Vo. 1, No. 4
This week in Ohio State football… the Buckeyes don’t have a game.
That means there wasn’t much to do besides talk ball, and that actually turned out pretty great.
I wasn’t that optimistic going into interviews with Brain Hartline and Matt Patricia because they have offered more words than substance in their meetings with the media so far this year, but I was very wrong with what we got Tuesday afternoon.
So many interesting things were said I couldn’t even narrow it down to one for a post about “the most interesting thing I heard on Tuesday” as I usually do (and some other stuff came up around the house, but hey, let’s go with the first thing), so that’s going to be the thrust of this week’s Ohio State football news digest.
One of my offseason concerns was Ohio State defaulting back to the style of play it used most of the past decade: Aggressive on both sides of the ball, leading to lots of fireworks and points — for both teams.
So far, that has not been the case, and this week’s interviews indicate the shift is here to stay for both sides of the ball.
The Buckeyes are dedicated to running the ball and being balanced on offense, and they are not just going to line up and try to win with raw talent on defense1 now that Jim Knowles turned tail and ran back to Pennsylvania.
That said, Day still proclaimed his love for “shot plays” (designed to get receivers open downfield, typically using play action) but also explained how he views trying to get them:
“So when they're there, we'll be aggressive down the field. But that's why balance is so critical, identifying what a defense is doing and then being able to take advantage of that. And we're looking to establish that.
We're looking to establish how to win the line of scrimmage, get the ball to our players in space, stretch the field horizontally and vertically. And you can't just break the huddle and look to launch it every play. It doesn't work that way.
There's a lot of good coaches across the country. And they know who some of our skill players are. So we work hard on trying to find those situations and find creative ways to do that.”
He later veered into nerd territory talking about the mechanics of throwing the deep ball. (Too many words to copy, so just check out the video; it includes his mannerisms, which also help.)
In a related development…
Brian Hartline loves play action
Veteran Ohio State beat writer Tim May suggested to Hartline that outsiders might have expected him to come in guns blazing as the team’s play caller.
Wouldn’t the former receiver who has made his name by stocking the roster with future NFL first-round draft picks want to feature guys like Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss as much as possible?
Hartline smiled sarcastically at the question then explained why that is not the case.
“A great pass game is complemented by a great run game and vice versa. So to have play action passes, it's not great if you don't have a great run game. And you don't have great tight ends that can do all those kind of things.
“So being very balanced makes it a little more difficult, I think, for the defenses to maybe pin you down a certain way. But I've always believed — I'm a big fan of play action pass. I love the art of selling something you're not doing.
“And so, yeah, that assumption would be a little too surface for me for the run game. But I appreciate you asking.”
He’s also on board with bringing along quarterback Julian Sayin slowly despite the flashes of ability to carry a heavier load.
Here’s a good 10 minutes of what all Hartline talked about that was worth hearing:
Matt Patricia loves a good nose tackle
Kayden McDonald, a third-year sophomore from Georgia who is listed at 6-3, 326 pounds, is the type of athletic wide-body Ohio State has not had much of over the past 20 or so years.
He’s also being deployed as a true nose guard, plugging gaps with athleticism and bulk rather than through guile (like a Tim Anderson, Dexter Larimore or Luke Fickell even), when the Buckeyes get into their “Penny” odd front that looks somewhat like Woody Hayes’ 50 defense is built to stop modern offenses that spread the field to run the ball and throw downfield.
“And sometimes what that does to a defense is actually allows you to push your defense out a little bit more. Kind of went through that in some of the other nose guards that I've had or interior guys that I've had where guys maybe can widen out some alignments. They can play a little bit off and deeper because it's going to take the play a little bit longer to get to them when you have that ability inside.”
Actually, Patricia just seems to love everything right now
A commenter mentioned this on YouTube, but it bears repeating: This guy has brought an unmistakable positivity to this job.
Patricia’s pleasant demeanor came as something of a welcome surprise to anyone (like me) who was only familiar with him from terse clips of his NFL interviews when he was with the Patriots and Lions.
Perhaps heavy is the head that wears the crown (especially when Bill Belichick is your boss), but he also said he just loves being around these college guys.
“I think I've said this before, but it's such a joy to kind of be around these guys. There is that professionalism that you walk into the meeting room, they're very serious. They take notes. They want to learn what the game plan is. They really want to learn about the opponent, but then there's just that also joy of like they are young kids. They just have that youthful energy about them. They love the game for the game. It's just all of that stuff being around younger players that just come out of them.”
Patricia also confirmed he’s enjoying having so many different players to work with
We expected the secondary to be deep with young talent, and Patricia has made an effort to utilize multiple players in multiple packages because of it.
Most notably, that means true freshman Devin Sanchez is in the dime package utilized in heavy passing situations.
“Assignments have been really good. He's certainly very gifted athletically and can handle that. So hopefully these snaps that we're building on now can help him improve as we go forward. And certainly we're also trying to build our depth to make sure that we have that handled as we go forward. And putting him in that position, in that role, allows us to kind of build on that every single week.
“So there's things that we're doing in practice that maybe don't show up in the game, where he's getting the game reps to be able to get a good evaluation, maybe just kind of get him that exposure. But during practice, we have him in some different positions too, where we feel like we're building confidence to be able to do that with him going forward.”
Patricia also credited Larry Johnson for developing the linemen to play the style Patricia wants.
This is another confirmation of something we assumed from the start of the season: That Johnson is fully onboard with the head of the defense after rumors persisted he and Jim Knowles rarely saw eye to eye (or used the hybrid front Knowles had in previous stops).
In the first three games, Ohio State spent a lot of time in that penny front with a nose tackle, two tackles and two stand-up ends, and that means playing some different techniques than Johnson typically has taught. It calls for the big guys to be unselfish and tie up blockers instead of “stopping the run on the way to the quarterback.”
I’m going to belabor that point because A) this is my website, and B) Johnson has coached numerous all-conference and All-American players, but the one-gap, penetrating style he prefers has gotten the Buckeyes in trouble at times in recent years by hanging the linebackers out to dry.
I also think this is smart strategy because while those nose tackles can be hard to find, lots of guys can fill the tackle roles and that style of defense isn’t so reliant on having generational pass rushers like the Bosa brothers or Chase Young to work.
That’s all for this week, but if you like what you see, please share by forwarding this email or sharing the link on social media.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
1 Are there times they should just air it out like it’s 2018? Yeah, probably. Are there times they should just unleash talented defenders and say beat your guy? Yeah, probably, but that should not be how they play all the time.